Dubai is rapidly emerging as a sporting destination and with an array of sporting events lined up this year in Dubai, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) of Dubai is looking to promote the Emirate as a Sports Tourism destination in India this year. Carl Vaz, Director-India, DTCM informed, "We shall be promoting Dubai as a Sports Tourism destination in terms of spectators and participants. We shall tie up with the travel trade who are involved in promoting sporting events and will be introducing special packages. Some of the sporting events lined up for this year are the Dubai Duty Free Golf Cup, Dubai International Boat Show, Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Gulf Bike Week, Omega Dubai Desert Classic, Dubai's Standard Chartered Marathon and the Dubai International Racing Carnival."

Vaz was speaking at a road show organised by DTCM in Mumbai on January 17. A delegation of 17 suppliers comprising of hoteliers, tour operators and agencies, and destination management companies will be attending the road shows being held in four cities in India. The road shows, co-sponsored by Emirates Airline, Atlantis, The Palm and Royal Arabian Tours, commenced in Mumbai on January 17 and will be held in Hyderabad today, in New Delhi on January 20, and for the first time, in Ahmedabad on January 21.

The Dubai Dolphinarium is the latest addition to the India road shows. Armen Kostanyan, Sales and Marketing Manager, Dubai Dolphinarium said that the Dubai Dophinarium is looking to work closely with the Indian travel trade, and would provide 25 per cent commission on FIT bookings and commissions on group bookings would depend upon the size of the group. "Footfalls to the Dubai Dolphinarium from India have increased dramatically and Indians count for most of the Asians which form 65 per cent of our total visitors. Comparing the 2011 figures with those in 2010, the number of visitors to our attraction has increased by 20-25 per cent, of which over 15 per cent has been contributed by India," he added.

According to Vaz, Dubai recorded 640,000 Indian visitors in 2010 and 750,000 last year. Vaz further said that DTCM is expecting 20 per cent year-on-year growth from India. Saleh Mohammed Al Geziry, Director - Overseas Promotions & Inward Missions, DTCM added, "Dubai has witnessed a growth in Indian arrivals and we expect it to grow further." When asked about the accommodation and hospitality facilities expected to come up in the next few years, Geziry said that Dubai will have an additional 10,000 rooms which will be added by 2015 in the four to five-star categories.

Speaking about the addition of Ahmedabad to the road show itinerary, Vaz said, "We have witnessed a consistent growth from Gujarat, mainly from Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot and Surat. Further, there is an increase in the interest level from these cities. To augment the promotions in these cities, we decided to take the road show to Ahmedabad this year."

Geziry said that India is a huge market for DTCM and they believe there is always a potential for growth in this market. "The objective of the road shows is to network, re-connect and forge new relationships between the Indian and Dubai travel trade. There are various new products and services which we want to showcase to Indian travel trade." He further added that besides major source markets like UK, Russia and Germany, DTCM is shifting its focus to Asia (mainly China and India) and South America (Brazil).